In The Blink Of An Eye
by mambosnowchick
Summary: What can change in an instant? The trio is grown up now. But they are by no means the same as they ever were. Now, It's too late to go back. Can they still save the world, or is it too late for even that? R for violence, death and language
1. Where they are now

My first and probably only ever war fic and post hoggy fic. I dislike both. (Yeah so you're probly wondring why they are together.lol )  
Anywhoo.

D/C JKR owns all HP ppl. Plot by me, ect.

This is going to be pure emotion and feeling. I hope you're going to get mad and frusterated at parts and be all, "No! They can't do that!" and whatnot. haha.  
I know, the beginning whole chunk will be not as good. Mostly just info. But i have big plans for this. Im gonna slave over it. So i hope you like it!

The world can change  
In The Blink Of An Eye

From their different places in the world, three twenty-year olds stare longingly at the sky. The stars twinkle as memories never to be relived. The moon weeps to them as the dark navy sky itself swallows their happiness in a sea of infinity. The three cherish the crisp wind as it slices through their cloths, for it may be the last peaceful night of their lives. Yes, the time has finally come and from their safe havens, the golden trio know not what will come of tomorrow. In fact, they don't even know if the sun will rise.  
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Over the sleeping lands of Korea, Harry's emerald eyes no longer shine of longing to learn and love of life. Now they have a darker, deeper shine. A shine of hatred and excitement. He was not excited to go and lose his life, but to fight to save the Earth as he once knew it. He had prepared for this day to come since he first learned of magic. No one had actually thought this would arrive but Harry wanted it to. Somewhere deep in his hateful, smiting heart, he truly wanted this more than anything he had ever wanted in his life.  
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Harry was tall and gangly. Every piece of clothing he owns is ripped. Every item he owns is hidden or broken. His jet-black hair was as unruly as ever. Not having seen a comb in years, it was nothing new. Harry's scar was broken open again and now throbbed with pain so often, he must ignore it or fall victim to insanity. His face was stony and etched in a permanent frown. He was covered in dirt and gashes. He was practically one giant, bleeding bruise. He appeared much older than his actual age reveal.  
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Harry stood on the jagged rocks on the coastline. The wind from the ocean misted ice crystals into his shaggy black hair. His glasses long-gone, his eyes stung with the shards. But Harry ignored the pain like he had any most of his life. He turned his attention to the crashing, foaming waters in front of him. With each wave he felt another heartbeat wasted. His body was frozen in anticipation and his eyes were locked out to the shimmering waters that reflected the drowning moon, with laughter of waves distorting it.  
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In the frigid grounds of Northern Asia, Hermione's long, curling brown hair flowed in the wind. The strands tangled and danced with the mournful air. Hermione stared into the sky until she could see nothing but the black behind the stars. In her mind, the stars were the only thing blocking the sky from coming down to take them all away from this hellhole they had to live in. Her eyes were no longer filled with joy and glory. They were faded and dull. Emotionless. She had lost her ability to feel emotions when the first attack came.  
There were no more tears left in her dried eyes. Her body could feel no more pain. The numb from the cold didn't even touch her. She noticed nothing but her destination ahead. She wanted out of this.  
She was no longer the intelligent, innocent girl her friends had once known. No, now Hermione was gone and could never change back.  
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Hermione was tall and had a curvy body covered in scars and cuts. Her skin wrinkled into an emotionless face. Her cheeks no longer glowed pink or had their cheerful dimples. Her skin was pasty pale and smooth as silk. She looked like she had not seen sunlight in years.  
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She stood on her balcony and looked down to the rolling ground below. The ice covered it and snow sparkled with every ounce of love that Hermione had lost. The magic her heart once held was now scattered among her fields. These frozen hills that would never thaw. She looked down into the ice until the blur of white overtook the void within her.  
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Ronald Weasley's red hair hung into his eyes swaying with the cold night wind. His eyes wandered the sky with wonder. The sparkling eyes that used to whisper love and kindness, now shouted anticipation. He was always on the lookout. Never could you sneak up on him. He had a sixth sense for anyone within viewing range. He loved the thrill of the fear and the rush of adrenaline. He of course had wished this day would never have to come, but now that it had, he was going to love breaking every moment of it. A smile played at the corners of his lips until they twitched into a smirk.  
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Ron was tall and muscled. He was no longer weak or wimpy. He was scared of nothing now. He had been through it all so he had nothing more to fear. He focused solely on his effort. Head to toe he displayed battle scars he was proud of. His freckles replaced by tan and burt skin, and his twig-like arms now strong and admirable. His eyes were always shining and his smile hardly ever left.  
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He lay separated from the ones he loved, in the dark center of an Italian park. Buildings were shaded away by trees bordering his paradise. The benches lie scattered among the rolling hills. This only strip of land in the entire area was the salvation that would keep Ron sane. Shadows crawled over the dim grass as the first strip of pink broke the dark. Ron lay in peace and happiness as more rays of light shot into the night until the red hot sun glowed in front of him like the magic he once knew.  
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Hope you liked the lil intro bit there. The first few chapters are gonna just be intro stuff before the good stuff starts. No flames please.


	2. Ron remembers

Ron's smile is broken for the first time in years. Is he still strong? Or is the fighting going to take more than it's toll? This could be the very last time he'll ever see the setting sun...  
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Chapter two! Hoorahh.  
Ok, seeing as it wont italicize OR astrix my flashback, ill have to write FLASHBACK as cheesy as i think that is. -,- So, FYI: FB is Flashback/FB is end flashback.  
Enjoy.  
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That night was the last night this generation of the Earth would sleep peacefully. Young children slept innocent and unknowing. The dreamt of new toys and frolicking in the fields with their best friends. Some restless children had nightmares and would wake crying. They would run to the comfort of their parents arms and soon drift into a safe rest. Teenagers fell asleep in the late night hours, home from parties and hanging out at their buddies' homes. The would calmly dream of things to come the next day, or work they didn't get done. Adults catch up on the sleep they missed from an early morning or a long day. They would have wonderful, dreamless nights where their peaceful breathing was the only sound to be heard.  
As the sun slowly awoke the entire of Asia, from East to West people awoke. They started their day as normal as could be and ran through work, school and play worry-free. On the East where it would start to grow dark, no one knew of the evils outside their houses. No muggles knew of magic and sorcery, except small children who live by the laws of fairies and princesses in fairy tales. Only those of the wizard world could sense the wrongs. The dark forces that turned the very air stale and caused the daylight to slip faster from the sky. As the muggles prepared for an upcoming cold night, witches and wizards knew that on this night, something would go terribly wrong.  
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Ron lie for what could be the last time, on his grassy knoll in the park. He knew something was coming. He had survived and fought through the raids of the past three years, so he was trained to it. He lived by the very thought of defeating and fighting to possibly his own death. So, by this feeling deep in the pit of his heart and lost in the back of his mind, he tried to remember his friends. He didn't even know if they were alive anymore. Lying with his hands behind his head, he watched the setting sun and thought. He remembered the countless times Harry had led him and Hermione to near death, but ended up saving hundreds of lives. Ron shook his head and laughed to himself.  
Near death. Not after all this rubbish.' As the thought passed through his head the air grew colder causing another memory to invade him. The memory of the Light Lord. Albus Dumbledore. The bravest man anyone had ever known.

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FB  
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Ron held two dark wizards by their necks and brandished his wand across them. He threw them down as their heads lolled back and their faces turned purple from lack of oxygen. The redhead stepped on the two cloaked and hooded figures while running to the aide of another fighting on the side of light. The girl screamed curses at a charging troop of black. One lodged a dark brown wand into her throat and hissed a curse. She collapsed and grew pale.  
As the sun sank lower into the sky, the enchanted ceiling above grew darker. Ron spun around and glared at the laughing murderer. He pounced on him and wrapped his large hands around the thin neck. Strangling him before his accomplices could save him. Ron sat on his chest while putting as much weight on the throat as possible. He grinned satisfied, as he could no longer feel a heartbeat on his rough fingers. His favourite way to fight had always been the muggle way. You could be sure to get the job done.  
Ron hopped off the lifeless form and scanned the room. The enormous Great Hall had been invaded just one year after Ron, Harry, and Hermione had left Hogwarts. Ron was closer than the others-who he still didn't know where they were- so he was called in for help. He saw students cowering in the corners and hiding behind the teacher's tables. Bodies of both children and adults alike littered the floor. Twelve black cloaked figures remained standing along with five witches and wizards Ron's age, Ron and Dumbledore.   
Noctournous Airelle! came a shout from the right of Ron, snapping him from his thoughts. He just had time to turn and see a pale purple glowing stream shooting toward him. In slow-motion, it hit Ron smack in the chest. His lugs restricted and his head felt tight. His eyes pounded with pain. He struggled against the invisible weight trying to breathe. His knees snapped and he fell to the ground. With loss of breath, all he could do was lie and try not to die.  
He could hear a scream behind him. Scampering feet and a shout.  
Ginny!' he thought. He had completely forgotten she was there! Long red hair fell in front of his face as he was dragged out of the battle floor. Ron could hear no more from that. All he did was watch as blurring figures ran past and crowded around him. Then too much movement for him to focus, but he thought maybe he was breathing again. Maybe. He couldn't move a muscle, but saw as his little sister smiled at him and gave him a tight hug. She kissed his forehead and scampered away, knowing he had to fight. But, he he couldn't close his eyes as his attention diverted. He saw Professor Dumbledore stand tall and strong without a wand, as he was surrounded and shot at. An explosion of coulour filled the room with rainbow light as Dumbledore stood proud and glowing in the center. He sparkled with magic and his eyes remained open. No pain showed on his elderly face and his lips were curled into a smile. At last, the old man fell to the floor never to breath again.

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/FB  
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Ron blinked back any tears that had come to his eyes and sat up. He raked his hands through his ginger hair clutching tightly at the roots for security. He ran his fingers over scars on his head and sighed a painful sigh. In the past three years, he had taken a life of happiness to ignore the pain of loss. But now, for the first time in three years, his face fell. His eyes were dark and saddened and he felt weak. He lay back on his hill and sadly watched as the sun dropped the last few inches until the land was ice cold. At last, the pink glow was gone and the first stars spiked the black sky. He finally rose and walked out from the park with his head high. Trying to feel as confident as he knew he should, he spoke out loud.

There's no turning back now man.

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Woot! Another one for the J meister. How ya like? Please drop a nice review?


	3. The reason behind Hermione's lost eyes

Long one! This one is sad...but i guess the whole thing is sad...so yeah. Enjoy!  
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Anyone who looked at Hermione Granger would assume her as an older woman. Her hair was long and curling untamed. Her face pale and wrinkled smile-less. Her entire body not having seen emotion since the horrible day years ago.

Hermione entered her warm, stale home from her balcony overlooking frosted fields. She latched the large glass paneled doors and went across the bare room. She took the time to walk through each room slowly. To look at each stripped wall and each dusty floor. She looked in the shadows that concealed the corners and under her loose floorboards. Nothing remained in this house. That's all it was now. It never truly was a home. Her heart was never here, but now it was only walls.  
She tore her eyes from each wooden room and each frosted window. Finally, she made it down the stairs to her front door. There were two large boxes. The only things she had worth keeping, fit in two cardboard boxes. Most things were magical photo albums and remnants of her childhood. Even her wand lie deep within one box. She felt no need to have it on her person. If someone wanted her dead, than so be it. But...maybe she should take it out, for safety.  
Upon instinct, she opened the closest box and ran her long fingers over each leather-bound album and each scrap of paper. She felt for the magical stick and sealed her fist around it. She felt something flow through her. Almost like the very first time in Olivander's where she found her wand. Magic warmed her frozen fingertips and ran up her arm. Soon her entire body filled with warmth and she remembered why she had stored the wand in the first place. Hermione did not want to feel feelings. She would break down if she did. She honestly couldn't even remember how to feel since the day her parents were attacked.

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FB  
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The very first attack had magical sirens blaring. The loud whirring ring left all tone deaf. All anyone knew was panic. People ran the blackened streets screaming. Black-cloaked figures floated from house to house like ghosts. They filled the streets shooting random people with flashes of green light. Some however, took joy in watching people suffer and shot a breath-stealing spell to helpless children or wandless witches and wizards. People tried to protect their crying children or told them to run away. However, some figures only took pride in storming houses, and pushed past fleeing people.

Hermione watched frozen from her window. All she could see was pure chaos. Everyone ran left and right. Black-cloaked dark wizards rounded up people in circles in the middle of the street. Muggles and wizards alike. They took no care for anything. Fear filled the panic stricken air as they surrounded the ant-sized people and blasted them. All Hermione could hear was one mass scream.  
All at once, a black-cloaked figure her size turned. He looked straight up into her eyes. All Hermione could see from her window now, was his eyes. Everything else seemed to blur away. Those eyes locked with hers and searched her through her windowpane. She was frozen on the spot. She couldn't even duck. The pain and anger filled eyes glued to hers. Out of nowhere the familiar, icy eyes turned away. The person pointed up to Hermione. She finally ducked. Just in time.

Her front door burst open. Hermione's breath caught in her throat. She ran to her bedroom door and peeked out. Five wizards in black and the young one from the window flooded in. Hermione's mother's scream pierced through all the noise and hit Hermione's ears like nothing before. The high pitch turned on her tear ducts. Tears pierced through her eyes and poured down her face. She almost ran down to help her mother when her intelligence took over. She ran to her closet and hid instead. She climbed in the tiny hidden door in the back. Her father had built it for her in case of an event this horrible. Hermione had laughed it off at the time, but now her heart beat so fast it pounded in her ears. Her raspy breathing filled the quiet closet air. She prayed the masked men wouldn't hear her. She tried as hard as she could to stop crying, but knowing that her mother was tortured out of life broke her very soul. Her head throbbed and her eyes hurt from the salt of her tears. The lump in her throat burned her very breath as she listened with all her might.

Stomping up the stairs came pairs of feet. Incoherent shouts were heard and her father's shout of pain. Hermione gulped back the fresh ocean of tears that erupted within her. Her very existence was now gone. The reason for life had been taken. But, Hermione told herself she must be silent. If she were not then she would have the same fate as her family. She choked down the tears as they swelled in her. Her heart ached, but she was too afraid to notice.  
At last thumps came down the hallway. Closer and louder. Hermione could no longer tell which were foot steps and which were her heartbeats ringing in her ears, Her bedroom door burst open, sending a ripple of silence through the ice-cold room. Stomping and crashes meant the invaders were searching for her. She heard the noise cease and held her breath until her lungs almost popped. Footsteps were stealthily sneaking toward the closet, but having lived in this room her whole life, Hermione knew someone was crossing the floor.  
Closer. Almost at the door. Hermione could sense someone there. She knew she was in her hiding cabinet, but would it be enough? She pulled back as close to the wall as possible. Silence.

The closet door flung open and her cloths and shoes were discarded throughout the room. Through the tiniest crack in the wooden wall, Hermione could see a blur moving about searching for her. Someone knew she was there. It must have been the cloaked ghost in the window. The young one with the hatred in his eyes. Hermione held in a gasp as she swore she saw the electric flash of their eyes again, but the death eater turned away. She heard them retreating her bedroom. Tears soaked her cheeks once more but she bit her lip and remain silent for what seemed like forever.  
With trembling hands, she reached to the door and pushed it open a crack. Pulling back instantly, she froze against the shadowed corner of the cramped space. No movement filled her room so she tumbled out of the cabinet space. Shivering with fear, she tread silently through her trashed room and to her broken door. Hermione stepped over pieces of wood and out into the chilled hallway. With no sound in the house, she snuck to her parent's room. Her father was gone. In the place, her heart sank. Blood spattered everything and only a pile of flesh and bone lie on the bed. Gruesome as it was, the eighteen year old ran to him and touched the frozen flesh. The touch to his hand make her break down. Her knees were weak as it was and she couldn't bare it. She fell to the ground and sobbed.

Just like that, a muffle had been taken off of her and she heard the final screams in the night. Glancing to the window, she saw bright flashes of green light and heard the screams drowned out by the explosion of evil laughter. At once all was silent. Hermione was alone and she could feel it. She quivered when she tried to stand, but inched to the shattered glass anyway. Darkness covered everything. All the streetlights were shattered. Flaming trees barely lit the pavement, but revealed the horror of the attack. Bodies littered the entire area. Not a cloaked figure remain. Children and adults, muggles and magic alike all slaughtered for the enjoyment of the Dark Lord. Not even the stars would shine on the broken scene. Not a siren remian howling. Not a soul was left untouched.  
Hermione tore herself from the room of her father and the broken night. She fled down the blood covered stairs to pray her mother was all right. She rounded the destroyed home for any trace of her. At last, the teen reached the living room and found her mother lying on the floor. She looked so peaceful, she could have been sleeping. Hemione ran up to the beautiful woman and touched her cheek. She fell to the floor beside her and shook her shoulders. When nothing would work, Hermione lost control. She cried and cried. Her broken house seemed to absorb all of her tears. They never stopped flowing and her sobs echoed around her, making her feel more alone. Finally when no more tears would come, Hermione rose from the floor. She wrenched her puffy, salty eyes from her innocent mother and looked to the window. She saw her weak reflection in the silver shards of glass. Then she vowed she would feel no more. No more tears would fall from her eyes. She also promised that she would avenge her parents no matter what. No one would get away with this. She may have been broken inside, but she would never let her emotions grab hold of her again. She almost ran to save her parents, but now she was alive and there was no more chances for 'almost's. She would have to know exactly what she wanted to do, and set to it.

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Now Hermione stood in her acrctic house of two years. She held the wand in her hands that represented everything of her childhood. The magic she felt in learning, the joyfulness of friendship, but most of all the love of her parents. They had given her everything she had ever needed. And now, the only chance to get anything done might be this wand. Her heart tore in two. She had to put it back to preserve her memories right? Or would she possibly be able to uphold her vow to avenge her parents-by breaking a vow of emotion?

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Dum Dum Dummmmmmm. Please click that lil blue button? Right below this? The one next to Submit Review'? Thnx! But...be nice to my fragile phyce?


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